Despite recent attempts to mitigate the crisis, the unfunded debt for public retirement benefits poses a massive and growing problem throughout the nation. A study by the Pew Center on the States captures the gravity of the issue in its title: “The Trillion Dollar Gap.”

Rising costs of promised public-sector employee pension and retiree health benefits in 50 states now are more than $1 trillion in the red, Pew calculated. Other studies estimate even greater deficits, including a Free Enterprise Nation study this year that put the combined state and local government unfunded liability at $3.5 trillion. … Only four states contributed the entire amount needed for nonpension benefits in 2008. Ohio wasn’t one of them. …

Talk has begun in Ohio about addressing the coming shortfall, but nothing has taken place. This being an election didn’t lend itself to any being taken. However, with Republican John Kasich winning the gubernatorial race, having a Republican-controlled Legislature and having said everything is on the table, there’s reason to hope meaningful action will come next year.

Those who will rely on Ohio’s public pension systems certainly anticipate action next year. …

“It took years for states to get into their current pension predicament, and it will take years for reforms and fiscal discipline to get them out,” the Pew study concluded. Ohio needs to start.

The Lima News